Monday, January 17, 2011

Weekly Round-Up 1/17


Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.

This week I'm reading Withering Tights (Rennison) and Perfect (Kellogg).  I'm listening to The Lost Hero (Riordan).

Last week I read Once in a Full Moon (Schreiber), Slice of Cherry (Reeves) and Deeply, Desperately (Webber).  I also reviewed The Mysterious Howling (Wood) on audio.

From NetGalley 
Queens of All the Earth by Hannah Sternberg
Publish date: 6/16/2011
Not on Goodreads yet.  I love A Room With a View so I thought I'd like this one.  It's interesting that with so much Austen being rewritten or updated that someone decided to take on Forrester.
As her freshman classmates move into dorms at Cornell University, Olivia Somerset suffers a nervous breakdown. When months of coaxing and analyzing fail to rouse Olivia from her stupor, big sister Miranda decides the sisters should fly off to Barcelona for some "vacation therapy."
When a mistake at their Barcelona hostel leaves the Somersets in a large co-ed dorm room, Olivia and Miranda are saved by kindly Mr. Brown and his son Greg, who happily volunteer to surrender their private room. But while Olivia feels an instant connection with brooding Greg Brown, Miranda sides with fellow guest and cocky American travel writer Lenny:

The Browns are just plain weird, and must be avoided at all costs.

In the midst of urbane Peruvian priests-in-training and Scottish soccer fans, from the shops of La Rambla to the waters of the Mediterranean to the soaring heights of Montjuic, Miranda works to protect her still-fragile sister while Olivia struggles to understand her burgeoning adulthood, her feelings for Greg, and the fear that makes the next step in her life so impossible to take.

Inspired by E. M. Forster's classic novel A Room with a View, debut author Hannah Sternberg's Queens of All the Earth is a poetic journey of young love and self-awakening set against the beauty of Catalonia. Teenagers and adults alike will be riveted and moved by this coming-of-age novel about the conflicting hearts and minds of two very different sisters.



Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
Picture the scene: Dother Hall performing arts college somewhere Up North, surrounded by rolling dales, bearded cheesemaking villagers (male and female) and wildlife of the squirrely-type. On the whole, it’s not quite the showbiz experience Tallulah was expecting… but once her mates turn up and they start their ‘FAME! I’m gonna liiiiive foreeeeeever, I’m gonna fill my tiiiiights’ summer course things are bound to perk up. Especially when the boys arrive. (When DO the boys arrive?) Six weeks of parent-free freedom. BOY freedom. Freedom of expression... cos it’s the THEATRE dahling, theatre!!

Perfect by Marne Davis Kellogg
Despite her best intentions, Kick Keswick—international jewel thief, fabulous dresser, gourmet cook, and woman-about-town—finds herself drawn into the glamorous, dangerous world of jewels (and the people who covet them)....
It should have been the start of a perfect sojourn in Provence. Kick Keswick had just settled down to warm chocolate soufflĂ© with a decadently rich Grand Marnier sauce and a small glass of Armagnac when she receives startling news: the personal jewels of the Queen of England herself have gone missing, and she wants Kick to get them back. Most of the world knows Kick as an expert in jewels and antiquities, having been the right hand at Ballantine & Company Auctioneers in London, but others know Kick as the world's finest jewel thief, a woman who can stand out in a crowd at will, but who can also blend in when she wants to. So the chase is on, in a race that takes her from Provence to Paris, London, St. Moritz, and Milan—and puts all her wiles and talents to the test as she faces a thief whose skills match her own. And with Kick Keswick on the case, there will be trouble afoot—of the multifaceted kind.
With sophistication, wit, and insider details, Perfect is a madcap adventure that takes you on a quest for the things that make life worth living…or at least worth talking about.

Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
Kate Brown's life has gone downhill fast. Her father has quit his job to sell vitamins at the mall, and Kate is forced to work with him. Her best friend has become popular, and now she acts like Kate's invisible. And then there's Will. Gorgeous, unattainable Will, whom Kate acts like she can't stand even though she can't stop thinking about him. When Will starts acting interested, Kate hates herself for wanting him when she's sure she's just his latest conquest.
Kate figures that the only way things will ever stop hurting so much is if she keeps to herself and stops caring about anyone or anything. What she doesn't realize is that while life may not always be perfect, good things can happen -- but only if she lets them....

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